12 The Mahseer. Chatt. n. 



novel to him, and his first impulse is to break away from it. 

 Subsequent yearnings he may possibly have, and doubtless has, 

 when he comes to think of it, for the shelter of some deep corner 

 where he is used to solace himself, his own fireside. But it is a 

 novel experience to him this restraint, and it is no new work to 

 you, and you may pre-occupy his mind, and occupy his tail, not a 

 little, if you show prompt generalship. The master mind may come 

 in here as well as in the fall of empires, and it is surely a 

 pleasure to find you have that commodity somewhere about you. 

 Of course you have it. We all knew you had it. And now it is 

 proved ! The very instant the fish hesitates wind him in. It is 

 not impossible you may land him at once, getting him on shore 

 before he has well made up his mind what to do. But the proba- 

 bilities are that as he finds himself nearing the shore, and gets a 

 clearer view of the great big trowsered biped that is bothering him, 

 he will summon up all his strength for another rush. All right. 

 that is just what you want ; you only want to make him keep on 

 exerting himself unremittingly, and he must soon be yours. Is 

 there no music in that whir whir whir of the check reel, the rod 

 bending bravely all the while ! Surely it was of this that the 

 sporting poet Shakspeare said some hard tilings with reference to 



" The man who hath no music in liimself 

 Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds." 



Fire away, Mr. Mahseer, discourse sweet music on the long- 

 stringed winch. The more the fish fights the better, the better for 

 sport, the better for speedily killing him : any respite is Recovery 

 of strength, and a good sidk makes him almost as bad tokdl as a 

 new fish. 



The ground on which 1 lay such stress on continuity of pressure, 

 more even than on the strength of the pressure, is simple enough 

 when it is considered. Under any extraordinary exertion the mm 

 call on the blood, and the blood on the lungs, for speedy renewal of 

 speedy waste, and the result is being what is railed out of breath, 

 and the muscles, though by no means tired out, can do nothing till 

 the breath is regained, shall we say till the blood has been re- 

 orj genated. Never give a moment's grat e then for this re-oxygen- 

 ating of the blood, and you may kill a large fish in a very short 

 time. The average time for killing a big fish with b salmon rod is 



